just Thrive, baby

My nutrition continues to fall into the Vegetarian/Semi-Vegan category. I’ve been continuing to read & enjoy THRIVE. Last night, I cooked Salmon for the first time ever! Hey…I’m a slow learner! I just sauteed some veggies with it in a skillet with some olive oil & a little turmeric. It was not GREAT, but it was ok…for now. I will learn to perfect. I will need to invest in a few new kitchen items like a good skillet (i had 2, i threw 1 out last night post dinner) and a food processor. I’ve been using a lot of Amazing Grass’s products;
the bars and then some of the powders in my smoothies. All pretty tasty, actually.
A typical smoothie is:
Banana
Frozen Berries (blackberry, strawberry, blueberry)
Almond Milk
Scoops of Amazing Grass Hemp Protein or their Amazing Meal Blend
*Spinach* sometimes

I find that I am having success with changing my nutrition this time around because I am using the book as a resource and then looking for additional resources. I’ve really noticed feeling “lighter”, not so heavy & bloated…and i understand now what types of food and food combinations can really lead to those sensations. Needless to say, I like the “lighter” feeling.
I also like just the difference in my focus; before I would focus on “cutting out sugar, alcohol, meat..etc…”. Now, my focus, isn’t really about cutting those things out…but rather “what do i want to consume that is nutritious?” It might be all semantics, but it makes a difference. Am I making sense?

Not a whole lot going on in the running arena…only running a little – like 15 miles a week. I’m thinking of some plans for the rest of the year and into next year. I hope to make some decisions soon and will keep you posted.

On a brief travel note, I went to NYC on Friday/Saturday. Saw a 2 person play called “Dusk Rings a Bell” w/ the amazing and gorgeous Kate Walsh. (gushing) It was awesome. The play was touching, funny, poignant, surprising & very thought-provoking. I was 3rd row from stage at a tiny, intimate theater. While in NYC, I also spent time with an old friend…someone I had not seen in 27 years. Even though I was only in town for a tiny amount of time, we managed to share 2 meals and coffee together. It was pretty neat to say the least. I’m actually still pretty full from our visit, from the entire trip. Maybe I will write more about it all later…

For now, if you want to read something inspiring, copy & paste this & read. pretty great.
http://www.scottjurek.com/blog/

Be well. Live big. Rest. Love.

Cheers!

hills, nutrition, shoes, etc..

Mid week I did some more speed and hill work. Here’s a couple of photos of the 2 hills I have been running my hill sprint repeats. These workouts are not lengthy, but they are strenuous and I feel damn satisfied afterwards.

The first Hill (pic #1) is longer. The 2nd hill (pic #2) is shorter, steeper. I’ve been running sprint repeats of both.

Saturday I ran a short, hilly, 3 miler. Sunday, I ran a flat 4.5 miles. The heat & humidity are creeping higher. You would think after living in Atlanta for 10 years it would be a non-factor, but it is very much still a factor. Mixed in with the small amount of miles has time at the gym. Just trying to get stronger & faster.

In honor of my beloved San Francisco Giants, I wore these KSWISS shoes today that i picked up on my trip in March for LA MARATHON.

I have 3 pairs of KSWISS shoes; the ones above which are KSWISS Tubes and 2 pairs of KSWISS K-Onas – one blue pair & one red pair. I love them all. The K-Onas are very light, but still have great support. The Tubes are heavier with more cushion. I wore ASICS for years, but over the last year, I have found a new love with these shoes.

One of the things I have written about in the past is nutrition. Often times, i will decide, for different reasons, to cut certain foods from my diet. Sometimes it has been sugar, meat, alcohol, etc…Well…as it has happened over the last month, I have just been “organically” (no pun intended) reading more about nutrition and understanding more about how different foods affect my body. So, in a nutshell, I have been eating almost entirely a fresh food/vegetarian diet. I picked up this awesome book called THRIVE by Brendan Brazier, a Vegan Triathlete. Its been a very informative & compelling read. I’m enjoying learning more about what I put into my body. One of the best things about the book is that it contains a lot of very SIMPLE recipes. (if you have followed me…you know i need SIMPLE!!) My goal is not to adhere to a Vegan diet — there are certain items i am just not willing to give up…like 1/2 & 1/2 in my coffee. 🙂 The main thing for me is to understand what I am eating and why and make choices that are healthy for me. I’ve been enjoying putting together the new recipes and shopping for different items. One of the most glaring things i have noticed since modifying my nutrition is the “lightness” i feel. It’s amazing how eating certain foods just make one feel ridiculously heavy! I look forward to more reading, more learning and healthy eating.

I working on a new dream…a new plan. Will announce soon.

Stay strong. Train hard. Train smart. Love and Live BIG.

In the Kitchen

Now that I have a kitchen i like, i have been inspired to actually cook! Mind you, i can only make a few things now and so I trying to broaden my capabilities! I started the other night with trying to make spaghetti. I checked out a recipe online and went at it. It looked pretty simple. it was going fine…i was rolling along chopping and letting sauce cook and simmer. The spaghetti noodles were about to be done so i went to grab the colander ….hmmm…cannot find the colander! what the hell?? yep, NO colander. I have no idea where it is. I had one at my old place and i already unpacked all the kitchen boxes so where could it be…? I still  don’t know. I had to somehow drain the spaghetti without using a colander which was um…interesting! Soon enough, I mixed noodles with sauce and sat down to eat my first real cooking in my new place. It was decent. The sauce ended up being not saucey enough and maybe needed some garlic (which recipe did not call for). Other than that, it was edible enough for me. I’ll try a different recipe next time cause I want to be able to make an awesome pot of spaghetti! 

My next stab at cooking was last night when I attempted to make Watercress Soup. I bought a new soup book from Borders for $6!  Why I picked this particular out of all  of them I don’t know. i guess cause it called for a very small amount of ingredients. and i had it before and remembered it tasting good. So, i’ve got all my ingredients and am pleasantly pulling the leaves from the watercress stalks (which is not all that pleasant). I looked at the recipe and was trying to figure out how many potatoes it called for. Here is how is it written in book: 8 oz/225 g potatoes. Is it 8 oz of potatoes? or 8 potatoes that each weigh 225 g? I’m sorry, but me and following recipes is still a very new thing so I didn’t know. it may be common sense to some, but not for this girl! I had a bag of potatoes and i looked at the info on them and each one was 148 g/5.3 oz. ok, so that helped. since i was scaling down the recipe in size, i just added 1 potato. OK. I was then ready to put the contents into blender. In the blender they go and after pushing the blend or whatever button, the top of blender almost entirely came off! Green stuff spouting out and spraying all over. Not too much, but you know what i mean! Not to mention, on my skin and it was HOT! Oh, well…i kept going with blending it and then i tried a different button on blender..i don’t know what it was now..maybe puree? THAT WAS EVEN WORSE. More green liquid spayed all over the counter. AHHHHHH….what is a wanna-be cook to do??? It looked pretty well blended by then, so i transferred to saucepan and re-heated a little, as recipe said. After spending MANY minutes cleaning up the green mess, I finally poured some in a bowl and tasted it. Well? Kinda watery and bland. I had some newly bought Point Reyes Blue Cheese so I added a bit of that and it made it a little better. Maybe I needed another potato? Oh well. I ate my bowl. I was still hungry. I went and got one slice of wheat bread, salami and jack cheese and ate that too. THAT WAS GOOD! 

AHHHHH….this little wanna-be chef is NOT gaining any confidence here…..but I know i must keep on. First, I gotta find the damn colander!!